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Microsoft working on Windows 7 SP2? Of course

Several reports on Wednesday suggest that Microsoft is working on SP2 of Windows 7. In other news, Apple is working on iPad 3 and iPhone 6 too. The reports are based on Russian warez site Wzor who published details of post SP1 fixes that will be considered for inclusion in Windows 7 SP2. The site claims that work on Windows 7 SP2 began in the fall of 2010, shortly before Microsoft finalized Service Pack 1. Obvious? Yes. News? No.

Microsoft is reportedly planning 132 updates for x86 Windows 7 SP2 and 171 updates for x64 Windows 7 SP2. These numbers will obviously change closer to the time of SP2 readiness. “News” of SP2 being readied is hardly surprising. The company regularly starts work on the next versions of its products shortly before the current iterations are finalized. It’s standard stuff across the software industry.

At this time it’s not clear why the company is refusing to confirm the RTM milestone publicly. WinRumors asked Microsoft officials multiple times to confirm whether Microsoft had reached the RTM milestone for Windows 7 SP1 but company officials would only reply with “Microsoft has not released SP1 to OEMs at this time.” As always, we’d advise against installing leaked bits on production machines but at this time we’re confident build 7601.17514.101119-1850 is the final RTM.

SP1 will include RemoteFX which provides rich 3-D graphical experience for remote users. The service pack also will include a series of incremental updates, previously released on Windows Update for both Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

RemoteFX is a new enhancement to RDP’s graphical remoting capabilities. The idea behind RemoteFX is to allow for a full remote experiences including multiple displays, Aero and multimedia streaming to all types of client devices including low cost thin clients. RemoteFX achieves this by using a technique known as host-based rendering. This technique allows for the final screen image to be rendered locally on the remote PC after being compressed and sent down to that remote host. The enhancements are expected to greatly improve video streaming across remote sessions which is currently one of the major drawbacks of virtualized computing.

This is very frustrating. Between the lack of information for enterprises who will be waiting to find out when SP1 is coming out, and the lack of information regarding when the Windows Phone 7 update will be coming out really makes me wonder what’s going on over there. Are we all being duped, and there are really no updates at all?

Sincerely,
Microsoft’s Dwindling Customer Base

http://www.twitter.com/astroXP astroX

Another response to Neowin, lol

Andrew McNaughton

It is highly irregular that Microsoft would be keeping tight-lipped about SP1 going RTM. It would be a radical change in practice. Everyone knows with nearly all of Microsoft’s products someone within the relevant team posts on their blog confirming the product has gone RTM. Within 14 days (sometimes less than 7 days) it’s posted to MSDN and TechNet. I don’t see how Microsoft would gain from denying a build is the RTM. It’s a service pack. It’s not even a major release. Piracy isn’t an issue. Sites like this need to just admit they got it wrong. There’s a lot of idiots out there installing this build in the belief it is the RTM. This really is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s almost like inexperienced amateurs are running these sites these days. I look forward to being proven wrong and to discovering that Microsoft has changed tact and has decided to keep quiet about a lowly service pack for an extremely long time.